Wednesday, May 23, 2007

And Now another edition of "What have the Kagans been Wrong about Now?"

The Unblemished Family Record Continues

Fred Kagan, the designer and chief advocate of the "SURGE" recently returned from Iraq where he frightened the natives with his TNMD* and damned if while surrounded by military officers at "Camp Victory" proclaims his legacy assured...

Though you may be getting the opposite impression from news reports, the sectarian violence that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had unleashed by destroying the Samarra Mosque in February 2006 has subsided. Measured weekly, sectarian killings are down by almost two-thirds since the start of the Baghdad security plan.


Yeah, darn those news reports from people who actually have to report outside of a protective cocoon!

Sectarian Violence Rises in Baghdad

Filed at 12:52 a.m. ET

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A car bomb exploded Tuesday at an outdoor market in a Shiite area of Baghdad, killing 25 people and wounding at least 60 -- the deadliest in a string of attacks that stoked sectarian tension in and around the capital.

The blast occurred in Amil, one of a cluster of neighborhoods in southwestern Baghdad where Sunni-Shiite tension is running high three months after the start of the U.S.-led security crackdown.

Following the blast, terrified survivors ran through the streets hauling buckets and pots of water to try to put out fires in shops that were shattered by the bomb. Volunteers tore through the rubble, searching for survivors...



But wait...Fred's preternatural ability to diagnose the scene like "Quincy:Cartoon Coroner" gets even better!

He said...

Security is improving across Baghdad, even in traditionally bad areas.


D'OH, reality says...

There were other signs Tuesday that Sunni-Shiite tensions are again rising after they eased last winter following the start of the Baghdad security operation Feb. 14.

In north Baghdad, gunmen wearing army uniforms stopped a bus carrying college students to a Shiite neighborhood, entered the vehicle and sprayed the passengers with gunfire, police said. Eight students were killed and two were wounded.

At another fake checkpoint near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, gunmen killed six people from one family -- a woman, her 5-year-old son and four men -- and stole their car, police said. It was unclear whether the victims were Sunnis or Shiites.

In Baghdad, mortar shells struck a college in the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, killing four people and wounding 27. Four rounds landed around the office of prominent Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, causing no casualties but destroying three cars, his staff said.

Gunmen in two vehicles ambushed a car in the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Khadra carrying three plainclothes police officers from the major crimes unit, killing two and wounding the third, police said.

Another officer was killed when a roadside bomb exploded next to a police patrol driving through an eastern Baghdad neighborhood, police said. Three other officers were wounded.

In all, at least 100 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide Tuesday, according to police. They included 33 people found shot execution-style -- presumably by sectarian death squads -- and their bodies scattered across Baghdad.

And, "YOU BET" that I haven't forgotten events that have happened in the four hours since this report...

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up inside a coffee shop east of Baghdad on Wednesday morning, killing 15 people and wounding 20 others, police and medical sources said.


*Turkey Neck of Mass Destruction

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